‘There won’t be much left’: Fishing village fears the worst

THE King Ash Bay fishing community is bracing for utter devastation as Cyclone Trevor bears down on the idyllic fishing spot

A NASA satellite image of Cyclone Trevor taken on Thursday

AT a fishing lodge on the McArthur River, some 40km north west of Borroloola, Ashley Garner is expecting sheer devastation when Cyclone Trevor makes landfall.

“If the forecast comes through, particularly if we get the bottom left quadrant of the cyclone, I don’t think there will be nothing much left here,” Mr Garner said.

Mr Garner runs King Ash Bay Lodge, a destination spot for fishos and home for coastal charter fishing boats.

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“I think it’ll be pretty severe devastation and not too much left,” he said.

“That’s the general idea people have — that it’ll be flattened.”

Mr Garner says he, along with the 50 or so others still at the lodge on Thursday afternoon, will follow police orders and drive out on Friday morning.

Tropical Cyclone Trevor continues to intensify off the western Peninsula coast as it moves southwest. A severe impact on the southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria coast is likely over the weekend. #CycloneTrevor https://t.co/AWJKLhynnl pic.twitter.com/tBdW5DeE43

— Bureau of Meteorology, Northern Territory (@BOM_NT) March 21, 2019

“The police have advised that it’s mandatory to leave,” he said.

“We’ve got this afternoon to finish packing up then everyone’s got to get out of here (by Friday).

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“The majority of people from King Ash Bay are driving out, whereas from Borroloola quite a few people are flying out, particularly the more vulnerable people.”

Mr Garner said the town’s evacuees were well practised after Tropical Cyclone Owen lashed the gulf last November.

“Everyone here is pretty used to it,” he said.

“We had a close call last year so everyone is essentially packed up from that.”

Mr Garner said the weather on Thursday afternoon in the town was “fairly calm and pleasant” with “a bit of cloud cover and a light breeze”.

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But casting his mind to what will be happening in King Ash Bay in a few days’ time, havoc is predicted.

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“A real problem will be all the crap and debris that’s lying around — lot of shacks and bits of tin flying around — it will make short work of many the houses around here.”